What is the Shakti Academy?

Shakti Academy is the hub of Shakti Caravan. Shakti Academy is a cultural center, performing arts and festival venue, and eco-hub in the city of Udaipur. It will be powered by solar technology and built from locally sourced, recycled materials by Udaipur-based architects, designers, ecologists, and artists. It is a model for sustainable and healthy living right in the center of a thriving, ever-changing metropolis.

As you walk through the gates, you will see an outdoor stage to your right. To your left, a large indoor theater and performing arts space, built from bamboo. Small eco-hut guest houses will dot the outer perimeter. A vegetable garden takes up the center of the land. We’ll use the veggies to make and serve healthy food from a small cafe by the water. Weekly film screenings will take place on our outdoor projector, and evening music sessions will spring up around a big fire pit. There is a natural swimming pool and a rotating series of diverse art installments, workshops, lecture series, and performances throughout the year. Also, you can get to the Academy by sail boat.

What does Shakti mean?

The name Shakti Academy comes from the word “Shakti”. In Hindu mythology, Shakti is the primordial goddess and the feminine counterpart to Shiva. She is believed to be the life force that exists within all things. More specifically; the lightning-strike energy that moves through us when we dance, sing, make art, or follow our creativity and curiosity. We’d like to think that Shakti is the light that goes on in people’s eyes when they experience a moment of inspiration.

Every workshop, performance, art installment, lecture, and leaf planted on the Shakti Academy land aims to create and instill that feeling of inspiration in the people who come to the Academy.

What’s the difference between Shakti Academy and Shakti Caravan?

If the Shakti Academy is the venue, the Shakti Caravan is the community. The Shakti Caravan revolves, globally, around the Academy itself. Shakti Caravan takes the mission of the Academy out into the world and connects artists, lecturers, educators and future students to this 2 acre plot of lakeside land in the center of Udaipur City.